Think of the number one billion. A billion of just about anything is a lot - people, bananas, cars, pints of novelty ice cream flavors. According to a report published by market research firm Strategy Analytics, the number of Android powered smartphones shipped last year was approximately one billion, forty-one million, seven hundred thousand (give or take a few tractor-trailers worth). That's about one Android phone for every seven people on the planet, not counting tablets, set-top boxes, and other Android-powered devices.

The one billion figure is an increase of about one third over 2013, and with a total smartphone market of 1.3 billion shipped devices, Android dominates with an estimated 81.2% marketshare. Apple's iPhone is a distant second with 15% of the market, followed by Windows Phone with 3%. The rest of the market, including BlackBerry and older operating systems, makes up just .7%.

More detailed information is behind the research firm's paywall. Even without the detailed breakdown, it's safe to say that Android's continued competition at the high end of the technical spectrum and expansion into huge and relatively untapped markets like China, India, and Brazil is helping to keep the open source operating system on top. Strategy Analytics didn't break down the shipments by manufacturer, but the third-quarter 2014 numbers from IDC put Samsung on top with 78.1 million phones, Apple in second place with 39.3 million, followed by Xiaomi, Lenovo, and LG at around 17 million each.

BOSTON, Jan. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew 30 percent annually to reach a record 1.3 billion units in 2014. Android accounted for 81 percent of all smartphones last year and shipped over 1 billion units worldwide for the first time ever.

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, "Global smartphone shipments grew 30 percent annually from 1.0 billion units in 2013 to a record 1.3 billion in 2014. Emerging markets, such as China and Indonesia, drove the industry's growth last year and they will continue to do so through 2015."

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "Android shipped 1.0 billion smartphones worldwide in 2014, rising from 0.8 billion units in 2013. Android has become the first ever smartphone operating system to ship more than 1 billion units in a single year. Android accounted for a huge 81 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally in 2014, and Apple iOS remains its only serious threat for now. Apple iOS shipped 192.7 million smartphones worldwide in 2014, capturing 15 percent share. The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models have recently re-energized Apple's growth and their bigger-screen designs have swiftly gained traction among wealthy consumers."

Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "Microsoft shipped 38.8 million smartphones for a relatively niche 3 percent marketshare worldwide in 2014. Microsoft's Windows platform dominates PCs, but it continues to struggle in smartphones. Microsoft still lacks multiple major hardware partners to build its phones, while Microsoft's retail presence in important countries like Chinaremains tiny."

The full report, Android Shipped 1 Billion Smartphones Worldwide in 2014, is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, details of which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/9djv7u8.

Comments

It says "smartphones shipped", therefore it shouldn't include iPad, iPod, and Android tablets.

Steffen Laursen

I'm more scared than impressed. One manufacturer in complete control of both devices and ecosystem, and a manufacturer that's very aggressive and closed about it's platform. That does scare me.

mark

15% (which is out of the ill-defined smartphone category - out of all phones, it'd be significantly less). As the article says, "a distant second", no I'm not impressed that the most advertised, hyped product-line, from a company with billions manages "a distance second".

If you mean it's more impressive because Android is sold by multiple companies, then Samsung alone sell twice as many Android phones as Apple. That's impressive. Not to mention all the other non-Android phones Samsung sell on top of that.

Or possibly you mean it's impressive that a feature phone with old specs and features that's so expensive manages to sell that many. In which case I do agree - though feature phones shouldn't even be in these stats.

abobobilly

How the bloody hell Apple manages to achieve so many sales? :S JUST HOW :S

They follow a simple strategy that is known to work specially in countries with oppressive regimes, they make their people (here customers) feel special like they're god's chosen people, they make a cult as where a regime who is drowning in corruption (aka Middle east,iran or NK) would make their people live a lie about their superiority and how amazing of a nation they're.

where contacting google for help regarding youtube/google play or about any other service is as fruitless as talking to a banana, honestly its shit, one instance I can remember is when gameloft pulled a EA and banned people who used a known glitch in their heroes of something paid MMO, instead of fixing the glitch, iOS users complained to the Appstore and they all got their IAP/game price back forcefully from gameloft and an apology from Apple, google simply told us they wont do anything and its up to gameloft to refund us or not which of course they didn't

Android as a whole is cool, but as always dealing with google's service always gives me the feeling of using a great service with horrible execution.

Porknaut

I am an Android user (Nexus 5), but I can still see why some people might prefer an iPhone. Just one example that I noticed was that the camera is amazing on the iPhone 6. The colors are very accurate to what I see in reality and they come out nice and crisp. I know there are some Android phones that get close, but they cost nearly the same price as an iPhone 6.

So there can be many reasons a person chooses to get an iPhone 6 and it doesn't automatically make them part of a slavish cult that believes in the glorious leader of their oppressive regime. Hyperbole much? Good grief, lol.

Dario

Well put. I own both - iPhone 6 and HTC M8, flip back and forth from time to time. If I had to choose I would go with the iPhone. Boring, yes, but reliable like a mother you know what. I don't get that feeling with Android. Never did, probably never will. Android is a love/hate thing, iOS, more about differences of opinion.

Relationships can last on differences of opinion, but no so much when there is hate and complete frustration. Battery management being the biggest. Sorry Google, you pale in comparison to Apple on that front. I know this first hand with my mix of devices including the tablets - Air 2 and Nexus 7. So yes, I try to give Andoid the benefit of the doubt but at the end of the day my go to devices always seems to be Apple.

Not sheep considering how much I spend on Android to this day, If anything I consider myself disallusional over what to expect from Android. I hold out hope the next interaction will be better. But then competition doesn't rest either.

HellG

What are you talking about? Did I say iOS users are in a slavish cult? I live in one of these regimes and I know how it goes, All I meant is that you dont need to be the best to make your people feel like they own the best services, while apple services are not the best they sure make you feel like it, where google services are better but executed badly, I was actually praising apple model but I think someone is pretty good at jumping guns :)

AbbyZFresh

81% is what they had from an average in 2014. I'm sure that number has went down a lot to at least 75% thanks to the iPhone 6/6+. And it's only going to get worse if Samsung doesn't do something about it.

These stats are really showing that Android is becoming increasingly worthless on the high-end market since that's where the money is. You can only make so much from the low and mid-end.

Dante_of_the_Inferno

Considering there's another 5 or so billion people out there without smartphones, the ceiling for "only so much" sounds a good ways away.

mark

Apple's share always goes up in Q4 due to a new release, then slides back down again, so there's no reason to think Android share is going down. (Hell, Apple fans have been claiming "But _this_ year it'll take over" every year since 2007...)

And plenty of Apple sales come from lower end devices too - the older models remain on sale at lower prices for years. So we can forget the "worthless on the high-end" claims.

I'm always amazed when I see these stats, what I see around me on a daily basis is much closer to 50-50 Android vs. iPhone, and recently a big swing back to iPhone since the release of the 6. I guess it's really those emerging markets where Android is gaining such a huge percentage of the global market share.

mark

If you're in the US, then the market has always been very different to the rest of the world. Also going by what you see is misleading - there's the factor that Apple users seem to carry their devices all the time, so you notice the 15% of Apple phones, but not the 85% of other devices in people's pockets. That and they're far more noticeable with the obvious logos. (Similar to how one might think it was OS X with 90% market share not Windows, because Apple users seem to carry their laptops everywhere, and the desperate light-up logo can be seen a mile away.) Despite this, I've yet to see a single 6 - it's always years-old models people seem to buy around here. Only even started to see 5 models recently.

I'm in Australia, which is a similar western market to the US. And I mostly pay attention on the packed trains to/from work, so pretty much everyone has their phones out browsing, reading or using social media. I don't buy into the "obvious logos" point, most people have a case on their phone, and most Android manufacturers put a logo on the front. Apple definitely has an iconic phone design, and I mostly see iPhone 6 now, if not they're definitely 5S or at worst 5 (pretty much everyone here heavily buys into 2-year contracts so you rarely see anyone with a phone older than 2 years (top-end handsets are usually free on a $80/month plan or so). But yeah, there's stacks of Samsung's, and a surprising amount of Nexus 5's, and a smattered mix of just about everything else.

Ged Wolff

South Africa here; Samsungs, iPhones and 2 year contracts everywhere.

Cerberus_tm

I don't know why, but what you are seeing is not representative for Australia. There could be various other factors at play here, such as people on your train being richer or more materialistic. In my circles, I see a majority of Iphones, even though Android has a far larger market share, just as in your antepodean country. P.S. I hate Apple.

Artur

The keyword here is "shipped". How many of these are low-cost smartphones that are just lying in a warehouse somewhere?
Sale numbers (as in handsets sold to customers) are relevant, not shipping numbers.

That's an Android figure inspired by the archetypal James Bond villain Blofeld. Who, in turn, inspired Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers series. Who, due to a joke about monetary inflation and time travel, is the de facto standard for cheeky tech news articles with "One Billion" in the title.

Thanks for following along on that one.

Android Developer

nice. didn't think about it...

mark

"Samsung on top with 78.1 million phones, Apple in second place with 39.3 million, followed by Xiaomi, Lenovo, and LG at around 17 million each."

Note, this is the ill-defined "smartphone" category, not phones, so this compares 100% of Apple sales to only a minority of the competition. On phone sales, Samsung are even further ahead, and Nokia were second (don't know how that's changed with the MS takeover).